Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was a minor sensation in its day simply by putting two mascots side by side who had competed for the same audience for many years. The game is a collection of Olympic events, from short-distance running through long jump, javelin throw and swimming to shooting, fencing and gymnastics, and each one is turned into a short control task for the Wiimote and Nunchuk. In some you swing the controller back and forth, in others you aim at the screen, or you have to brake your movement sharply at just the right moment.

The roster of characters draws from both worlds, and every competitor has different speed, power, skill and stamina stats, so the choice sometimes genuinely decides the outcome. Alongside individual events, the game offers cup series that add up points across several races in a row, and a mode for up to four players, which is clearly the main reason the game exists. The events are deliberately short and easy to grasp, placing the game somewhere between a sports simulation and a party collection of microgames; the depth lies more in practising timing than in tactics.

The presentation is colourful and clean, the stadiums feel festive, and the commentary and crowd sound reinforce the sense of a big event. The music mixes ceremonial themes with remixed motifs from both series, a nice touch for fans. Reviews at the time were mixed: criticism targeted the shallowness of some events and the fatigue of repeated waggling, but the public bought the game in huge numbers and thereby founded a long-running series. Today it's mainly evening entertainment for a group, where simple rules and familiar faces do their job within the first minute. A solo player will admittedly get bored after a few cups, but as a historical milestone the game has a firm place: it was the first time two rival icons of the eighties and nineties came together in a single game.